During transFORM, Luminaire Lab is pleased to be hosting an exceptional installation of designs by Konstantin Grcic. Often referred to as a minimalist, Grcic prefers to invoke the word “simplicity” when describing his design aesthetic. With a range of work that defies easy categorization, Grcic has consistently sought to redefine and refine everyday objects, creating designs in both limited series as well as quotidian objects such as the KB720 blender for Krups.
After training as a cabinetmaker at Parnham College in England, studying design at the Royal College of Art in London and apprenticing with Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic established his own design practice, Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID) in Munich in 1991. He has developed furniture, products and lighting for some of Europe’s leading design companies such as Agape, Authentics, ClassiCon, Driade, Flos, Iittala, Krups, Lamy, Magis, Moormann and Moroso.
In a world saturated with objects and messages, Konstantin Grcic is unique for his ability to chart new territories, creating pieces widely described as pared down, simple and minimal. Constantly seeking to define function in human terms, Grcic combines maximum formal strictness with considerable mental acuity and humor, describing his own style as “current, feasible and realistic.”
Grcic’s contributions to design have widely been recognized. He has received many prestigious international design awards including the Compasso D’Oro in 2001. Grcic is also represented in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and Die Neue Sammlung, Munich. The subject of a significant retrospective at The Art Institute of Chicago entitled Konstantin Grcic: Decisive Design (2009-2010), he was most recently named Design Miami’s 2010 Designer of the Year.
November 2010
